Pressure on Europe to act against Islamic State

European leaders face calls to take direct action against the Islamic State, including in Syria, after the beheading of US journalist James Foley, but politicians are reluctant to take the lead after previous missteps in the region.

The release of a video this week showing Foley’s beheading by a black-clad Islamic State (IS) militant with a British accent has emerged as a possible game -changer in the fight against the jihadist group.

US authorities warn that IS poses the greatest threat in years with its “apocalyptic” vision, and a YouGov poll published in Britain yesterday showed support for joining US air strikes against the militants in Iraq rising six points to 43%.

Political leaders in Britain, France and Germany have so far ruled out joining military action in Iraq but reiterated their commitment to supporting Kurdish rebels fighting IS, which split from al-Qaeda in a row over strategy.

An IFOP poll released on Thursday showed a majority of French people, 52%, approved of arming Iraqi Kurdish forces to tackle IS, which now controls one third of Iraq, and whose numbers have been bolstered by radicalised Muslims from Europe.

European leaders are expected to face greater pressure for involvement at a NATO meeting in Wales next month. Some politicians say it is time to take the fight to Syria, where the group has its power base, and even work with the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, despite condemnation of his regime.

“Sometimes you have to deal with somebody who’s nasty in order to deal with people who are even nastier,” Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the British parliament’s intelligence and security committee, told Reuters.

“If the Americans are as serious as they say they are about eliminating IS in Syria as well as in Iraq, you cannot do that by airstrikes alone... you need boots on the ground.”

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested on Thursday that IS would remain a danger until it could no longer count on safe havens in Syria.

British foreign secretary Philip Hammond and his French counterpart Laurent Fabius yesterday flatly ruled out any dialogue with Assad or sending troops, saying the best path was for an international coalition to work with the Iraqi government.

“We may very well find that on some occasions we are fighting the same people as he is but that doesn’t make us his ally and... it wouldn’t be practical, sensible or helpful to even think about going down that route,” said Hammond. “We’re going to do it as part of an international coalition led by the United States, working with the Iraqis because the problem has to be tackled first of all in Iraq.”